VictoryLand greyhound track closes

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 2011:

SHORTER, Alabama–Greyhound racing ended at VictoryLand in
Shorter, Alabama on May 30, 2011, 27 years after the track opened
in September 1984.
Then called the Macon County Greyhound Park, the track at
peak employed 2,000 people. Only 200 people worked there when
spokesperson Bill Cunningham announced the end of daily racing on May
10, 2011. Five more racing days were held to fulfill contractual
agreements. The track was reportedly six months in arrears on
property taxes. “The only viable way to keep the live greyhound
racing was to have electronic bingo,” Cunningham said.


VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, 71, who also owns the
Birmingham Race Course, “faces trial on June 6 on charges of buying
votes for legislation that could have protected electronic bingo
games,” noted Donathan Prater of the Opelika-Auburn News. McGregor
introduced electronic bingo at VictoryLand in December 2003, and at
the Birmingham Race Course in 2005, but lost a December 2006 ruling
by the Alabama Supreme Court that the bingo games violate the state
law against slot machine gambling.
Greyhound racing continues in Alabama at the Birmingham Race
Course and the Mobile Greyhound Park. Nationally, greyhound racing
continues at 24 tracks in seven states, down from 50 tracks in 15
states in 2001.

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